we should have a thread for barker

because he's just so good. stochastic drift is like if autechre made the windows 95 theme (hat tip to tim f ;) ). it's breathtakingly alive moment to moment and also really easy to listen to. so much light and air. it makes me believe in digital audio. very particular, lush sound design but kinda humble too. there's an ep unfixed from 2023 that's up there too - a little noisier. still very tonal and very funky. the sound vocabulary on that one is something to behold. same with the new one but it's gentler. there's also a pretty sick ra mix on soundcloud. i could listen to a lot more of this kind of thing.

here's "cosmic microwave"

https://sambarker.bandcamp.com/track/cosmic-microwave

We absolutely should have a thread for barker although I dont know that much by him. Interested in finding out more

I really like Stochastic Drift but I love the Debiasing EP and Utility.

i gotta give the newer material a little more time. i think my fave barker mode is that “detroit techno meets e2-e4” kinda sound, if that makes sense, and the earlier ones were a bit more generous with that kinda material.

then again, “wick and wax” from unfixed is a great example of that sound. like i said, gotta give the last two releases a little more time…

I missed out on early Barker. I think Debiasing was my intro, and I've still yet to hear any of the 12"s. Can you recommend what earlier stuff you like? Because Detroit E2-E4 sounds firmly in my wheelhouse

Utility is all time. Had fun dropping a track from it mid-set years ago and it was a revelation.

New album is great (no surprise, except I was worried it might be more of the same). Kind of hate the cover art, though. The big, blocky shapes and relatively plain geometry and colour palette feel like a misrepresentation of how I think of this music, which is so much more intricately detailed, fragmented, variegated, and layered. I also love the cover art for Debiasing and Utility.

I remember seeing Barker at berghain in 2014, and that being one of the more memorable sets from the peak of my clubgoing years

Can you recommend what earlier stuff you like? Because Detroit E2-E4 sounds firmly in my wheelhouse

maybe start with the dibiasing ep, which is basically all in this style. that's what initially got my attention, anyway

utility a bit more varied but also totally great too, as others have already said

these eps have some nice tracks in that style as well:

https://sambarker.bandcamp.com/album/barker001
https://sambarker.bandcamp.com/album/barker002

including, heh, "e7-e5"

I know map has a different view, but while I love both Barker albums (and the EPs) and think Stochastic Drift is proabably his best release so far, I think this year’s Resident Advisor set is my favourite thing he’s done (which probably just means I think he’s best live - haven’t seen him in the flesh yet).

The sound is perhaps closer to Debiasing (all the floating echoey E2-E4 synth patterns) than Stochastic Drift , but it’s combined with an intermittent sense of rhythmic exuberance that is rare on his records (“Percussive Maintenance” being a perhaps well-signposted example of an exception), and it captures a sense of the digital melting into the organic (or vice versa) that is somehow more startling and resonant than either the digital or the organic alone - I wonder if Barking had his life changed, a I did, by that stretch of Ricardo VIllalobos’ 2003 Taka Taka mix which blended Mathew Jonson into Baeks into Brothers’ Vibe into Vainqueur into Maurice Fulton. There’s stretches where I’m put in mind of Luciano’s Live @ Weetamix, Jerome Sydenham and Ame, but then also occasionally Spring Heel Jack (one point sounds a bit like “Walking Wounded”)? It’s incredibly enveloping.

Best of all, the final stretch of tracks (I’m hazy on the demarcations) sound like King Sunny Ade at the rave - just impossibly joyful, watching the sunlight creep over the surface of the earth from outer space stuff.

Good god I finally got around to listening to that RA mix Barker did last year (featuring pretty much all his own tracks, but all unreleased) and it's just sensational. This stands up to his albums as some of his best work, but ffs it's like 128kbps quality (used a browser plugin to download the Soundcloud stream). Is there any other avenue to grab this with better quality?

100% deserves a legit proper release damn

The sound quality might be better on the Apple Podcast app

It at least originally went up at 320kbps there. I sent you an email, Octobeard.

thanks toby, unfortunately my ilx email is no longer active.

feel free to send it to my music/artist email: conifold |dot| music (at) gmail |dot| com

We should be talking less about bitrates and more about how amazing this set is

Well yes, but unfortunately you already did such a good job both upthread and wherever you posted about it before (Steve Reich meets Northern Exposure, maybe?) that it's hard to say anything other than "yes, it is amazing and I have no idea why he didn't put it out as an album".

Perhaps it's worth noting that his FACT mix, while not as good as the RA mix, is also very good (and from memory, similarly has no overlap with his official releases).

(octobeard, I sent you an email)

I have not heard the FACT mix!

You should rectify this! I just listened to them back to back; I still think the RA mix is better, particularly (as you note above) the remarkable final 15-20 minutes, but the FACT mix is definitely worth listening to.

The robot "viola" instruments are soooooo sick

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWQ4DjAfVsg

I've wondered how he did the jazzy drumming, didn't expect that it was a fully mechanical drum set.

He should team up with Pat Metheny for more mechanical instrument shenanigans.